Phoenixville School Board approves property appraisal contract

PHOENIXVILLE — The Phoenixville Area School Board has approved a contract for a company to do property appraisal services for the district.

At a March 14 school board meeting, the district made public its plans to possibly acquire a parcel for a new combined elementary school and district-wide early learning center.

“We’ve been open about our desire to acquire properties,” school board President Joshua Gould said. “This is part of the process to acquire them.”

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With six board members present, the measure passed. Kevin Pattinson, Irfan Kahn and Dan Cushing were all absent from the meeting.

The district and the school board did not name any specific properties or projects that the appraisal services might be for.

Joe Antonio, Phoenixville’s director of continuous improvement, said at the March meeting that the district would likely retire East Pikeland Elementary School and build a new building that would combine the new early learning center and the new East Pikeland Elementary with some shared features such as a cafeteria and playground.

The characteristics of a property the district would be interested in include 30 acres of space, proximity to the district’s administration building while being located in or near East Pikeland Township, as well as having good road access for buses and being cheap and readily developable, according to Antonio.